LoL Correct Approach to Bans Guide By: ifuckedmeteos

So most champions in the game have a ~50% winrate. Does it make sense to ban champions with the highest winrate, e.g. Amumu, Rammus and Warwick? Not necessarily because those champions don’t have a high pick rate and might not have been picked anyways. Take your last 10 games. Chances are that all 3 of the above champions were open in most games but Lee Sin was probably picked in over half of them. Furthermore there’s plenty of champions still with a high winrate after those e.g. Fiddle Fiora and Heimer with 53% so it doesn’t make sense to ban the champions with the highest winrate because you have only 3 bans but there’s plenty of high winrate champions.

Yasuo is “OP”, I should always ban him right? Well…

There’s also the perceived OP champions like Yasuo, Morgana, Maokai and Nidalee as evidenced by their banrates. However these champions don’t have the highest winrates e.g. yasuo has a 45% winrate. Winrate doesn’t necessarily say whether a champion is OP because that champion could suffer from the Kassadin effect where they’re banned so often that they’re autopicked by players if left open because “omg no yasuo ban, I’ve never played him but he is OP right>??”. These champions are strong but ultimately I think can be dealt with.

Remember, every champion is strong in the right hands

So one of the reasons I think Yasuo is highly banned is because everyone can remember a time where Yasuo got really fed and carried every teamfight. However, think hard enough and you can remember a time when every champion carried a game. Everyone’s played a game where Kat got fed AF and got multi kills like crazy and the same goes for Akali, Fiora, Fizz, Vayne, Master Yi, Riven and so on. There’s also been times where Jax kept splitting and same with Tryndamere, Nidalee, Irelia and Nasus.

Point is every champion can carry games and you can’t know beforehand if the enemy team has a Thresh with 500+ games and a 60% winrate or a Shaco main with a 65% winrate etc.

My opinion on how to ban and priority

If you are requeing right after your first game ends, ban based on whoever in your last game did really well or mained a certain champion. E.g. you might have just played with a Talon main and he carried HARD and you both requeue. Although he might not be in your game, you should ban Talon incase you get him again. This works better in higher Elo where you match against the same people often.

Ban based on what YOU have a bad winrate against. You might be a Jax main and can handle every champion except Ryze. Then why ban Morg, Yasuo and Maokai? BAN the champion that gives you a hard time. This increases your chances of carrying games and thus is what banning is all about. Another example is if you play Ziggs but can’t deal with Syndra or you play Vayne but can’t deal with Caitlyn. DON’T feel pressured or ashamed to do this. There will probably be times when you ban a specific champion you’re bad against, you still lose and your teammates pick at straws and play the blame game and blame your bans. Just ignore.

If someone on your team asks for a ban, generally you should listen. It helps keep morale up if anything.

IMO there are some champions that are too strong for soloQ. JUST IMO from D1 maybe it’s not relevant for your games but they are Akali, Shaco, Rammus, Fiddlesticks, Talon. Fiddle – his ult is too game changing and often gets good ults on to carries because there is not enough emphasis on vision in soloQ. Also, people don’t sacrifice themselves to cancel his ult channel enough. E.g. a thresh should almost always flash flay if he says a fiddle channel but usually won’t. Akali – snowballs too hard, same with Talon. 1-2 kills in lane for them and now they own the map. Rammus and Shaco – ganks are TOO strong, IMO just as good in terms of ganks as Eve in soloQ but scale much better or have much more pressure.